Feedback: What to do about Detroit's perilous pension problem?

Mar. 2, 2014

BankruptcyJudge Steven Rhodes’ ruling that pensions are contracts between the pensioners and the city subject to bankruptcy likely will stand, but the state constitution is not a contract.

Detroit, in the words of the constitution, is a subdivision of the state, and the pensioners, as citizens of the state, are entitled to constitutional protection. The corruption and incompetence of the Detroit pension boards, marshaled mainly by mayoral appointees and loyalists, and mayoral schemes to evade funding obligations, were highlighted in the Free Press for years.

The governor, as well as the attorney general and all of the legislators past and present, took oaths to protect the constitution. All have been derelict in their duty with respect to pensions and still seek to bankrupt the state with tax cuts instead of funding its obligations. If there is no liability for their actions or lack thereof, then what value is that constitution?

It took federal intervention to do the attorney general’s job to clean up Detroit’s corruption, and it may take a federal court to enforce our constitution. The Michigan Legislature would like to wash its hands of Detroit and obviously is banking on the pensioners not having the means or will to pursue this fight, and gamble on winning justice in the courts. They will not be forthright until intervention by the courts is looming.

Dennis L. Green

Farmington Hills

Irrespective of emergency manager Kevyn Orr’s plan of adjustment, Gov. Rick Snyder must make Detroit pensioners whole. The state constitution is clear, and he must uphold it. Also, enough of this talk by some that the pensions are a Detroit issue and not the responsibility of the rest of the state. City pensioners live in counties throughout the state. This is a Michigan responsibility.

William Hickey

Detroit

I certainly don’t think that the state constitution requires the state to make the Detroit pension system whole. The state constitution forbids the state from reducing the payout of a state- controlled pension. However, the payout of the Detroit pensions is not under state control, it is under the control of the bankruptcy process, which is being done at the federal level.

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People from other parts of the state would rightly scream and holler if their tax money was used to backfill a system that was poorly run by the City of Detroit for decades. It is unfortunate that the people that mismanaged it can’t be held accountable and that Detroit residents have to suffer the loss, but it would be worse for people in other parts of the state to have to suffer the loss.

Wayne M. Brehob

Dearborn

Yes, I feel for the Detroit pensioners who may face a cut in benefits. The Free Press has certainly run enough articles highlighting their plight. And I wouldn’t be happy if my pension benefit were at risk. But, I don’t feel the same empathy toward their leadership whose idea of negotiation is, “We are protected by law, so we won’t give an inch — and if we hear something we don’t like, we will sue and appeal and tie things up for eons.” Somebody needs to grab these people by the lapels and ask, “What part of ‘There’s no money’ don’t you understand?”

I also don’t agree with the attitude of “screw the banks and save the pensions.” Sure, the banks are faceless, however, they have as much a right, if not more so, to get back money that they have loaned.

Norm Miller

Farmington Hills

There seems to be a great difference between general city workers and police, fire & EMS retirees in regards to the pension cuts. There is one group left out: the linemen from the public lighting department. We were first-responders also. Our work was dangerous every day. We had our share of men getting killed on the job, getting hit with 4,800 or 7,200 volts of electricity. You cannot compare artwork against people having a pension.